Since the beginning of this blog, most of the posts have been theoretical and philosophical discussions. Owing mainly to the young age of my children, I have had few unschooling stories to share. Well, that’s all starting to change. W is nearing four. He has, of course, been learning his whole life, but examples of […]
Category > Unschooling theories
Can kids go to school AND follow their interests?
Thanks for sticking with me on my prolonged post series answering questions from a reader: Zoemaster. Sorry it’s taking me a little longer to get through them than I intended. I’m also in the process of starting a new school, so blog writing is often lower on my list of priorities. If you want to […]
How do you know what you don’t know?
Recently, a reader commented on a post with a long list of questions. The questions seem to be coming from a curious outsider; a schooled person who doesn’t quite see what all these unschoolers are complaining about. So, instead of answering the questions with another comment, I decided to start a series of blog posts to answer […]
The Measure of Success
As I proselytize the gospel of learner-centered education, I have come across the same concern over and over. I shouldn’t be too surprised, it would be a concern of mine, if I were still thinking from a traditional paradigm. The question is, “After democratic school (or unschooling), what do kids do? How many of them […]
Teaching and Learning
At the end of last week, I was part of an excellent online discussion on the differences between teaching and learning, and the detriment of using the word “teach”. This conversation was held on Twitter and blog posts and comments, and was sparked from my post called The Role of Parental Instruction. You can see […]
The Validity of Being Wrong
I really enjoy reading blogs of other unschoolers – both kids and parents – and I often get sparks of ideas from one thing, which leads me to write a post on a completely different topic. Such as it is with today’s post about the validity of being wrong. A couple of weeks ago, I […]
The Role of Parental Instruction
It seems to me that there is a distinction that must be made for unschooling parents and for people criticizing them. When we talk about principles versus rules and allowing our kids to follow their passions, there may be a tendency to believe that means letting kids do whatever they want. In reality, there are […]
How Can Teachers Unschool?
Alright, I need your help. Yesterday, I wrote about talking to teachers and getting our unschooling principles into the ideals and minds of institutionalized educators. At one point I mentioned that we can offer suggestions to teachers about how to use unschooling principles in their classroom (you may not want to call it “unschooling,” though. […]
Trust the Fall
I have a new game with our 7 month old son. It’s a falling game. And I realized yesterday that it is not only a great metaphor for unschooling, it is an example of it. Here’s what I do: First, I take a big, fluffly comforter and pile it up on the floor. Then, I […]
Where is This “Real World” You Speak of?
I was struck today, while reading Idzie’s sister’s reply to some unschool doubters, about this idea of a real world. You hear about it everywhere when people talk about schooled children. “When he gets into the ‘real world’ he’ll have the skills to…” or, in the case of unschooling, “I just don’t see how they […]
